Quote:Synopsis

Diligent and methodical honor student Eiichirou Maruo decides to exercise more during the little free time he has available because he is worried about his health. For this reason, after seeing a flyer, he joins the Southern Tennis Club at the beginning of his freshman year.

During his free trial at the club, he meets Natsu Takasaki, another first year student, who is determined on becoming a professional tennis player due to her love for the sport. In contrast, Eiichirou's study-oriented life exists because he believes that it is what he has to do, not because he enjoys it. However, his monotonous days come to an end as the more he plays tennis, the more he becomes fascinated by it.

Baby Steps is the story of a boy who makes the most of his hard-working and perfectionist nature to develop his own unique playing style. Little by little, Eiichirou's skills begin to improve, and he hopes to stand on equal footing with tennis' best players.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

MAL Reviews

This is probably the first sports anime (unless you count InitialD) that I've ever watched. Like the description states, Eiichirou (or Eii-chan as he is called due to his straight-A grades) decides he needs to get in some exercise for the sake for being more healthy. The tennis club he decides to visit for a free trial happens to have the cutest girl in his grade as a member, Natsu, who he had just met earlier that day.

What I really love about the series is that Eiichirou isn't some super pro player. He was just someone who stumbled upon something that made him feel truly whole and he works really hard at getting better at tennis. I can also relate to the way he learns: he has to learn things in "baby steps" knowing every detail and jotting it down in a notebook. I'm the same way in that I also like to write detailed notes ,except I'm not remotely neat like Eiichirou is xD

If that didn't convince you, check out season 1 OP:

There is 2 seasons out so far. Not sure if there will be a season 3 as I haven't even finished season 1 yet hehe.

TD;LR: "Believe in yourself" and watch Baby Steps!  

I am a HUGE fan of this series now thanks to the anime. It really is an excellent series. Eiichiro is really a great protagonist and it's fun to watch him grow in his abilities.

Also, in the second season the matches get INTENSE. I was on the edge of my seat for all of them. And I was never interested in tennis when I started this! Now I'll probably watch some events. What can I say, my interests in baseball, football and basketball were all inspired by manga and anime, so looks like I'll just add this to the pile.

I recommend the manga too. I find it a bit easier than other shonen series to read, but my eyes definitely glaze over at the analysis talk. I've never been downright confused though. And this is coming from a ~N4 student. But it's extremely easy to follow along with the games as basically everything that's important technique-wise are loan words in katakana. They even announce the scores and end game in facsimile English.

Just read/watch it.

Awesome another fan! I actually wanted to start reading the manga series after I finished Shirokuma Cafe as I thought of would be a fun yet challenging next step.

I found a few websites with tennis terminology in both English and Japanese so I'll probably refer to those often as I watch/read the series.

Is this anime better than "Prince of Tennis"?

I've never seen "Prince of Tennis" but I found this old thread comparing the 2 protagonists of the series.

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/...en.277846/

Wait...Prince of Tennis has superpowers? xD Anyways from there the difference is that Baby Steps is very realistic in that no one has powers and the protagonist starts off as a total noob. Also Eiichirou is 15, not 12 like Ryoma.

(2016-06-19, 9:58 am)RawrPk Wrote: Awesome another fan! I actually wanted to start reading the manga series after I finished Shirokuma Cafe as I thought of would be a fun yet challenging next step.

I found a few websites with tennis terminology in both English and Japanese so I'll probably refer to those often as I watch/read the series.

Excellent place to start. Thankfully Eiichiro speaks mostly slang-free but everyone else around him, not so much. It sometimes throws me for a loop but I've learned a lot in a short amount of time. 

Also, before you look up a direct translation for any tennis terms, look them up on Google and read what a Japanese site has to say. I have surprised myself by being able to understand tennis words defined in Japanese.

Also, to make it easier to read the in-series strategy discussions, skim the Wikipedia page on Tennis Strategy. It helped with my comprehension just by having some understanding what a baseliner/all-rounder/etc player is and it goes into good detail about Mauro's strategy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_strategy

(2016-06-19, 10:36 pm)uchuu Wrote: Excellent place to start. Thankfully Eiichiro speaks mostly slang-free but everyone else around him, not so much. It sometimes throws me for a loop but I've learned a lot in a short amount of time. 

As someone who initially learned Japanese in a traditional manner, slang is difficult for me. Eiichorou is probably the easiest to understand which is great for a protagonist.

Thanks for the tennis strat guide. All I really know about tennis is the scoring system lol xD

I actually found this Tennis Glossary in Japanese. I have this Jp-En tennis terms too though not as extensive as the first site.

I actually considered reading up on the basic mechanics of a typical tennis game right before reading Baby Steps so I can focus more on the story and not so much trying to understand how or what things are.  I also considered maybe reading the manga in English first and then Japanese but maybe that is considered cheating?  I like to do extensive reading when I read manga so I almost never use a dictionary on my first read. I tend to do lookup after the initial reading session so I just thought maybe reading in English first would ease the process. Any thoughts?

(2016-06-19, 11:03 pm)RawrPk Wrote: I also considered maybe reading the manga in English first and then Japanese but maybe that is considered cheating?  I like to do extensive reading when I read manga so I almost never use a dictionary on my first read. I tend to do lookup after the initial reading session so I just thought maybe reading in English first would ease the process. Any thoughts?

I for one think you could get a lot out of that exercise. In fact I plan to do much the same thing in the future. I have an untested theory that the only thing that matters is that you understand what you are reading. If you have to read the story in english or pre-learn vocabulary to get to where you are understanding most of what you are reading or watching, that's not cheating, it's pragmatism.

In the same vein as yogurt, I watched the anime subbed. It was enough to learn the plot and some words and makes things a lot easier to read for sure. I personally won't read it in English but subs are also kind of cheating

I would try it for a hook or two and then try to take off the training wheels and just read the Japanese. There are 40 volumes so you have a lot to play with.

FYI, the 2nd season of the anime ends at the end of volume 19.

Thank you both for your input! So far, I've been only watching the anime raw. It's difficult as I'm sorta lost in what's happening at times so I might just do subs for the anime. Jp first and if STILL lost, then Eng. I do feel as though I am cheating when I use Eng subs but this also is a sign that I have a lot more to learn. Gotta take baby steps, right? (lol I had to throw that in there xD )

As for the manga, I guess I'll just stick to extensive reading  for the initial reading like I am doing with Shirokuma. Ideally, I wanted to do intensive reading after reading an entire manga volume but I find myself to be too impatient for that and instead do it (briefly) a day or two after the initial reading of that chapter. My extensive reading is usually 20+ pages ahead of my intensive reading with the exception of Tadoku months. I haven't intensively read at all because of June Tadoku and I expect to have to do the 2nd half of the manga as I am only 37 pages away from completing Shirokuma Cafe Vol 1.